For Marjorie 2013 was another very busy year. It started with her finishing the
illustrations for a picture book she had started in 2012, Grandma
Lim’s Persimmons written by Sunita Lad Bhamray and published by a
Malaysian publisher, Oyez!Books, an imprint of Integra MajuJaya Media in
Malaysia.

Grandma Lim’s Persimmons (ISBN:
9789670481074) wasreleased in May 2013,
in time to be launched at the AFCC (Asian Festival of Children’s
Content) in Singapore.

Marjorie
illustratedthe chapter book, Blossoms
of Scarlet, a fantasy story written by Kiara Soobrayan and published by
Maskew Millar Longman. The inside illustrations are in monochrome and the cover
in full colour.

In
2013 Marjorie was commissioned by NB Publishers to design and illustrate
characters for their new interactive online application store, Storierak (“Story Shelf”), for the electronic
downloading of Afrikaans language children’s books.

Two
stories that she had illustrated earlier, Gouelokkies (Goldilocks) and Die
drie varkies (The Three Little Pigs) were included as separate digital
books on the new Storierak online
application store. These were two of four stories Marjorie illustrated for the Storieman series of children’s books ( Storieman books ) published by
Human and Rousseau in 2012,

Every
year the Centre for Comic, Illustrative and Book Arts (CCIBA) at the University
of Stellenbosch’s Department of Visual Arts offers a series of creative
workshops during Spring Break; in 2013, for the fifth consecutive year, Marjorie
was invited to facilitate the 5-day Children’s Book Illustration Course as part
of this series. She also offered and facilitated two 2-day courses and
workshops for children’s book illustrators during the year: In July The Fundamentals of Drawing and in
November Visual Background in Children’s
Book Illustrations.

In
2013 the City of Cape Town’s libraries department launched a reading campaign
aimed at young readers in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and they
used some of Marjorie’s illustrations for their campaign, on the posters, the library
cards, pamphlets, bookmarks etc. (Note: The children’s book library and
reading area filling the basement of the Cape Town Central Library has
wall-papered all its walls with blown-up copies of a selection of Marjorie’s published
children’s book illustrations (see below). This newly-renovated library, located next to
the City Hall and the Grand Parade in downtown Cape Town, is definitely worth a
visit for any booklover coming to the Fairest Cape.)

A great highlight of 2013: In October Marjorie, as Co-RA for SCBWI (SA) with
Elaine Ridge, the other Co-RA, and the committee members organised the SCBWI (SA) TURNS 10! celebrations. A
conference, a celebration party and a series of review sessions for children's
book writers and illustrators were held on 1, 2 and 4 November to celebrate the
SA Chapter’s 10thanniversary
– Marjorie started the South African Chapter of the SCBWI in October 2003.

The children’s book library and
reading area of the Cape Town Central Library

Blog Archive

Marjorie van Heerden

Marjorie writes and illustratates children's books. She is the Co-Regional Advisor of the South African Chapter of the SCBWI. She lives in a coastal village near Cape Town, South Africa. SEE MARJORIE"S RECENT BOOKS AT END OF THIS BLOG

About Me

Alice in Wonderland

Published in 2010 by Human & Rousseau, translated into Afrikaans by André P. Brink

Marjorie won the MER Award in 2008

Marjorie is an M-Net/Via Afrika Literary Award Winner: In June 2008 the M.E.R Prize for best illustrated children’s book of the year 2007 was awarded to Wendy Hartmann (author) and Marjorie van Heerden (illustrator) for Nina and Little Duck, published by Human & Rousseau (SA). It is also available in Afrikaans as Nina en Eendjie.

First Book that Marjorie illustrated

Studio in Linden, Johannesburg, SA

Bright Books Reading Series

Illustration from Baby Dance, HarperCollins, New York

The Story of this book Marjorie's daughter "wrote" when she was six years old!

Marjorie illustrated the Greek version of a book by Katherine Paterson